Lack of evidence in bulk ACC cases
MBABANE – The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has disclosed that a bulk of cases the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has handled have been found to lack sufficient evidence.
This was stated by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Pholile Shakantu in her written responses on the debate of the ministry’s first quarter performance report.
Question
Pursuant to Ndzingeni MP Lutfo Dlamini’s question on the ACC, asking what exactly the commission does on a daily basis following that the report indicated that no cases had been finalised in a while, the minister said the ACC was fully functional and currently pursuing its legal mandate of carrying out investigations, education and corruption prevention on a daily basis.
“There is so much corruption going on and rampant looting in the country but no arrests? What do these 40 men and women do when they get to their workstations at the ACC with a yearly budget of E24 million? There are no cases that have been referred to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). The minister spoke about an alignment process between the ACC and Human Rights Commission. Who is supposed to do the alignment and where does the process stand at the moment?” questioned the Ndzingeni MP. In her response, the minister said, the bulk of cases that the ACC had handled had been found to lack sufficient evidence to sustain criminal charges.
“Consequently, there has been no referral to the DPP during this quarter. Others have been referred to other institutions for administrative processing. The ministry is undertaking the constitutional alignment process and a report shall be presented to the House in due course,” wrote Shakantu in her responses.
Meanwhile, the master of the High Court currently requires 25 assistant masters of the High Court to be stationed in the different regions. This was disclosed by the Justice minister, who said due to the non-availability of posts, the judiciary had engaged assistant masters, albeit on a temporary or acting basis, to try and work on files in a speedy manner to transmit funds to beneficiaries.
Freeze
“The hiring freeze affects not only the Justice Ministry, but also other government sectors like the accounant General’s Office,” said the minister.
This follows a question posed by Nkwene MP Vulimpompi Nhleko, who asked the minister to give the MPs a breakdown of the places or regions where the vacancies were and further reveal the number of vacancies and positions. The MP also wanted to ascertain whether the outcry from members of the publice could be caused by these staff shortages.
“The master’s office is withholding funds that are due to widows and orphans without any valid or reasonable explanation and this burden ends up falling on honourable members,” stated the legislator.